This isn't market research or anything - I'm just curious. We all have our preferences. I know you are some opinionated bitches. What do you like? What don't you like?
Personally, I prefer makeup blogs that feature at least some affordable products. Either a focus on drugstore/affordable or at least a range from affordable to high end. I like the fancy shit, but if the entire blog is Guerlain this and Burberry that, I'm probably going to get bored pretty quickly. I want to look at some things I might actually be interested in trying myself. "Aspirational" can go fuck itself. Accessibility, please.
Same goes for nail polish blogs. I like to see swatches of mainstream polishes that I can easily get my hands on. The occasional indie is cool, and hooray for small business and all that, but I'm not in the market for $10+shipping polishes most of the time. Not to mention that they often sell out quickly. Let's see some variety.
Another thing I like, and this is purely aesthetic, is a simple, linear, vertical layout. I don't really have any patience for blogs where posts are laid out in a grid pattern or whatever. Also, if I have to scroll down more than a page to get to the newest post, no. If I have to decipher the layout to even figure out where the latest posts are? Hell no. I'm just picky, and reading blogs is supposed to be a semi-brainless, recreational activity, so if it doesn't feel good immediately, I'm out of there.
I also get bored if the blogger is super-positive about everything she/he reviews all the time. Sometimes things are shit. I want the truth - plus, reading bitchy posts is entertaining.
Do you agree? Do you think I'm weird and wrong? What do you tend to look for or avoid? Let's complain together!
negative posts are definitely fun!
ReplyDeleteyours and nouveau cheap are my favorite beauty blogs because of the focus on drugstore products. i also like your posts about non-beauty things, if it weren't for you i would have never found double spiced chai and what a sad life that would be.
Oh my god, I am out of that Chai. I thought maybe I wouldn't want to drink it once the weather warmed up, but I was wrong. Need more. I should do more non-beauty posts, but nothing has inspired me lately.
DeleteYeah I am so far from ever being in the realm of looking at or being in the same room as some extra fancy high end shit that I really do not have the patience for even reading about it. Half the time I wont even know what the fuck it is, like whatever you mentioned up there could be a medical procedure for all I know.
ReplyDeleteAnd 99% of the time I'm on my phone so I need a SIMPLE layout. SIMPLE. There's a few blogs I like but just don't even bother with because they just aren't nice to my phone.
I also agree on the nail polish mainly due to the affordability. I would like to support the indie polish folks but I just cannot.
Now what irks me is when people get shitty products and just don't review them because they were shitty. Like....no I need y'all to help me not waste my money. Even if it's not a full length rundown I would like a monthly or bi monthly some sort of 'here's some shit I hated' list. I like that you let us know the bad and the good. But when a blogger lets it slip they skip things they don't like I just scream loudly in my head. Because I know when I buy or try shit that does me wrong I don't shut up telling ppl about it so they don't waste their money.
I also REALLY appreciate the heads ups on sales and such.
And lastly when bloggers write like cookie cutter fill in the blank beauty blogs AAAAHHHHHH WHHYYYY?!? I don't get why people don't just talk like the regularly do. When the same buzz words start showing up and setence structure I just want to shake people.
It's so hard to avoid the buzzwords once you've been reading beauty blogs for a while. I'll get to the point where I don't know what the normal-person word for describing a product's texture or whatever is. It's obnoxious. Please call me out if you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about because I'm using jargon.
DeleteI understand not reviewing shitty things, because sometimes you just have a bunch of stuff you like and are excited about and you want to tell people. (I'm trying to think if I have any terrible crap I've neglected recently.) But people who avoid bad reviews because they want to get free stuff or attention from companies or whatever . . . like do they realize that they are just really, REALLY poorly paid promoters/advertisers? Beauty companies must love that.
Oh you aren't guilty of the buzz words at all, I think there is definitely a certain bunch of termas that will be used to best describe things it's more the...buzz paragraps surrounding the actual review lol like the fake excitement some blogs will use? When everything feels very cookie cutter and in the same words and call it a review.
DeleteI could care less about the tone of a blog. If you find things that are great, I like to know. If you find things that suck, I want to know too so I don't waste money on them xD
ReplyDeleteI love your posts about cheap dupes for other colours/products and find them incredibly helpful. Comparison posts are some of my favourites on beauty blogs.
I'm not really picky about the type of posts. Posts about beauty stuff are great, no matter what they focus on (hair, makeup, skincare, tutorials, reviews, customer service experience, whatever), and if you find good deals on other stuff, even if it's not beauty related, and want to share, it's always appreciated.
I only have ONE pet peeve when it comes to beauty blogs (which you aren't guilty of, from what I've seen on here xD). I HATE HATE HATE when people post swatch pictures that are useless. This is usually because of bad lighting or crazy blurriness. I'm not saying you need professional camera and lighting equipment, but please try to keep your hand steady and use more light than what looks like a Christmas light bulb to take your picture. If it's so dark I can't see the product/colour, or is so blurry it looks like a smudge, it's no help and, because there are now literally thousands of beauty blogs posting swatches, I will go somewhere else.
Terrible quality pictures, posts with an excessive amount of pictures (I don't need product pictures taken at 12 different angles), blogs with bad writing (a typo or two is fine, but when there's no capitals and no punctuation...), and blogs with cluttered layouts (I stopped reading Temptalia before she updated her layout because it was too chaotic) are the main things that make me click away. And you don't seem to be guilty of any of these things, so YAY!
Phew.
DeleteIt actually took me a while to get used to Temptalia, because I didn't like that it wasn't super-obvious where one post ended and another began. I don't want to have to actually think when I scroll through a blog, apparently.
It's funny you should say that about swatches, because I just redid a post where I thought the swatches were terrible and useless. It should go up tomorrow. I'm not a big swatcher. I don't tend to do it unless it's something that I don't think is widely available, or if I want to illustrate something specific. Or if I just really like something a lot and want to include photos rather than just links to other photos. It's a lot of tedious work. I don't know how people who put up multiple swatchy posts every day maintain their sanity.
I like posts that have affordable stuff instead of high end, expensive items. I know I'm not going to spend $30 on nail polish, so why bother? And I love the posts that show me affordable dupes for the high end stuff! There's nothing wrong with drugstore brands, but most bloggers seem to avoid them for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind posts about high-end stuff as long as it's something, unique or really, really good quality. However, swatches of what looks like, to me, 8 $30 blushs or lipsticks that're the exact same colour (lookin' at you, MAC), or streaky, splotchy $20 nail polish that people rave over just because of the brand name, are irritating xD I just hate when people avoid posting about really cheap stuff that works well in favour of high-end crap that performs as well, and in many cases, less well. I don't give a crap about a brand, as long as the product does what I want it to.
DeleteOn the other hand, it's sometimes nice to see those swatches of shitty, overpriced stuff, because then I know I'm not missing out on anything.
DeleteYou know what? I really hate the Guerlain this Burberry that too. Oh I really hate the obsession with hair things too. It's occasionally ok but the 7th review of a hair straightener is freaking ridiculous. I like nice swatches, moderate length reviews, comparisons, deals. The writing has to be decent too. Seriously put some effort into this ladies. Lol, I might get my ass kicked now.
ReplyDelete